Friendly Toast on notice following failed health inspection

Elizabeth Dinan

Wednesday

Jun 30, 2010 at 2:44 PMJun 30, 2010 at 4:32 PM

PORTSMOUTH — In the wake of its third failed health inspection, the Friendly Toast is on notice that one more failed inspection will close the downtown restaurant for a week and a subsequent failure will close it for three years.

PORTSMOUTH — In the wake of its third failed health inspection, the Friendly Toast is on notice that one more failed inspection will close the downtown restaurant for a week and a subsequent failure will close it for three years.

According to city Health Department records, the downtown eatery failed its third inspection on June 7 when it scored 65 points, with 80 points needed to pass. Some of the violations found were “likely to cause food borne illness,” Health Inspector Kim McNamara noted in a report.

Prior failed inspections occurred March 4, 2009 and August 22, 2006, with scores of 55 and 52 respectively, according to city records.

Just before the June 7 inspection, a restaurant customer emailed the health department to say he and his wife became ill after eating at “The Toast,” that the food “smelled sulfur-like” and after driving from the restaurant, he had to pull over to “evacuate,” according to city records.

A report for that inspection notes the front door lacked weather stripping, there was debris on a piece of food prep equipment, a rusty ice machine, uncleanable tape on a food prep table, a faucet in disrepair and the improper use of a rag was observed. A toaster was balanced on bowls and a cardboard box, fruit salad was discarded because it was contaminated by a serving spoon, and home fries were destroyed because they were not stored at the proper temperature, according to the report.

The restaurant was also advised to eliminate fruit flies, clean mold from around sinks, clean a food prep machine, replace a walk-in refrigerator, clean a men's room counter and replace the ice machine.

Subsequently the city entered an agreement with owners Melissa and Robert Jasper which notes that another failed health inspection will result in a closure of the restaurant for a week. A subsequent failed inspection would result in the revocation of the restaurant's food permit for three years, according to the agreement.

“This is the only restaurant we have this agreement with at this time,” said McNamara. “They are working very hard to make corrections and they have done so in the past. But they haven't been able to maintain it. They have 40 employees and running a restaurant is very hard work.”

City records for the Friendly Toast's contact with the health department date back to 2005 when a former health inspector warned staff not to eat in the kitchen and to wash their hands after eating. A December 2005 inspection report notes the discovery of a rusty ice machine, a dirty food slicer and can opener, freezers in need of replacement, residue on baking pans, dirty shelves, floors and light fixtures, and other infractions.

The 2006 failed inspection followed a complaint by a diner who reported finding a mouse dropping on a waffle, according to city records. McNamara conducted a follow-up inspection and while she found no evidence of rodents, she did report finding a faulty refrigerator, produce stored on floors, standing water on the floor, an outdated refrigerator, duct tape on a food prep surface, numerous fruit flies, broken floors and dirty equipment.

During the inspection, the following food items were discarded as being past an expiration date or not at the proper temperature: falafel, rice, hamburger patties, rolls, salmon, garlic oil, potatoes, cheese, guacamole, cases of eggs, salsa and chicken. McNamara wrote that a wooden walk-in must be replaced with stainless steel and all food stored at temperatures of 41 degrees or colder.

Staff was subsequently provided with a food handling class, according to city records.

On August 16, 2007, fruit and other flies were present, the dishwasher wasn't sanitizing, floors were wet and a sandwich unit wasn't holding proper temperature, according to health department records.

On April 25, 2008, a diner wrote to the health department to complain that her waiter had “dirty hands” and “nasty fingernails” and said when she mentioned it to an employee at a cash register, was told “he works on cars,” city records show. McNamara noted that she investigated, found the employee had left and staff was educated.

A note in the Friendly Toast's health department file, dated September 19, 2008, came from a diner who reported the restaurant floor “was really gross,” that benches had a substance “like tar” on the edges and that the floor was “sticky.”

On March 4, 2009, the date of the second failed inspection, the city found a moldy ice machine, butter below safe temperature, no thermometers in refrigerators, employees brushing up against food, and bacon stored near a sink, according to a report. The restaurant was warned not to “store food under dead mounted animals,” to cover ice cream and stored food, to not store food in milk crates, to clean vents blowing dust onto food, to clean walls and ceilings, and to replace torn seating and wood surfaces that could attract insects and rodents, city records note.

Five days later, a plumbing inspector reported finding the ice machine had the potential to cross contaminate with sewage, fixtures missing traps allowing sewer gas into the building and a sink drain pulled apart with waste draining into a plastic bin below. A report by that inspector recommended all plumbing be removed and replaced to code.

On March 10, 2009, an electrical inspector wrote a report noting there was unprofessional wiring and electrical code violations “too numerous to list,” causing risk of electrocution and fire. The same day the building inspector reported “a clear and present danger to the general public” and the restaurant was closed for repairs for most of the month.

Eight months later, on Nov. 18, 2009, a customer wrote to the health department to report he was “disgusted” with the “uncleanliness factor,” while reporting a dirty floor and caked food on eating utensils.

The failed June inspection followed.

On Wednesday, Melissa Jasper told the Herald that during the 15 years she has been operating the restaurant, complaints have included coffee that was too hot and ice coffee that was not cold enough.

“The last complaint was that someone started vomiting in the middle of eating chicken fingers at the Toast,” she said. “Thankfully, (the health inspector) told them that it was not possible that this was a food-borne illness, since that would have taken much longer to incubate.”

“The Friendly Toast is a high-volume restaurant,” she said. “We bake and prep our food seven days a week, with three prep shifts a day. We have had to insist that our food purveyors deliver seven days a week to keep up with our demand. The food is not on site long enough to spoil, plus the most important lesson that I drum into all my employees is quality. The first thing they hear after being hired is that I never want them to serve any food which is not something they would happily eat.”

Jasper said she serves about 4,000 meals a week, has been in business for 16 years and “have had no accusations of food-borne illness in all those years.”

“We were just one of the top four breakfast restaurants in the country, based on a Good Morning America poll,” she reminded. “Health inspections include building issues and procedures which are not always directly related to food safety. Since the arrival of Kim McNamara to the Portsmouth inspection department five years ago, we have been made aware of and been asked to change many things”

Prior to that, she said, the now-retired health officer “had no problems with us.”

“I asked him once why he didn't come by more often or have anything negative to say and he told me that he had limited time and had to concern himself with the places that were a threat to safety,” said Jasper. “When McNamara first came into the Toast, she told us we were going to have to change many things. The use of wood for shelving was forbidden and our whole kitchen was wood. We had no way of knowing the code had changed, since the other inspector never said so and restaurant owners are never given a copy of the N.H. health code or its amendments at any point.”

Jasper suggested that restaurant owners be provided with the code and updated with changes.

“Right now, even finding the code online is difficult and reading its voluminous legalese is next to impossible,” she said. “Did you know the health code stipulates how large an opening can be on a sugar pourer?”

Jasper said she spent more than $100,000 last year renovating the building which she doesn't own and “almost went out of business.”

“Most of the things we did were replacing outdated electrical and plumbing systems which were no longer in code and which we didn't build and do not own now,” she said.

The most recent failed inspection was caused, in small part, by a serving spoon left in fruit salad, she noted. Cooked potatoes for home fries were still warm and “we did not know that because they are so dense, they are staying warm for too long.”

“We are now cooling the potatoes on ice before refrigerating them,” she said.

Another violation noted was for “onion goggles” (glasses made to seal the prep person's eyes from onion juice) left in a drawer with eating utensils, she said.

Weather stripping on the front door was missing, said Jasper, “and happens at least once a week.”

“This poses a risk of insect infestation, yes, but the fact that the door is held open many times during the day by customers does kind of make the weather stripping not so important,” she said. “A restaurant's reputation is everything. I employ 38 people in Portsmouth and 45 more in Cambridge and both of these businesses would be at risk should our customers come to fear our food.”

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